A GROUP of senior doctors from Gaza say they endured beatings, torture and prolonged incarceration at the hands of Israeli forces during the recent conflict, sparking international condemnation from human rights bodies.
These doctors, some of whom were forcibly taken from operating theatres, describe a pattern of brutality that they say amounts to war crimes under international law and has inflicted catastrophic harm on Gaza’s already fragile healthcare system.
‘They dragged me away mid-surgery,’ says 63-year-old consultant surgeon Dr Issam Abu Ajwa.
‘I was still wearing my surgeons’ scrubs when soldiers stormed the operating room.
One of them asked: ‘Are you Dr Issam?’ and when I said yes, the beating started.’
He recalls being handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped, then thrown into a military truck alongside nurses and other medical staff.
Within a day, he was in a detention facility in Israel.
‘There were no rules,’ he says. ‘They threw me to the ground, smashed my head and then prised my ear open to pour water inside.
‘I was blindfolded and pinned down so they could scrub my mouth with a toilet brush.
‘They broke my teeth.
‘They have no humanity.’
Under international law, healthcare personnel must be protected in conflict zones and allowed to continue treating the wounded.
Yet, by the time a ceasefire took hold in January, more than 1,000 medical staff in Gaza had been killed and hospitals reduced to rubble.
A UN Human Rights Council commission concluded these strikes amounted to war crimes.
‘Hundreds of surviving medical workers, including dozens of doctors, were then arrested and transferred across the border into Israeli detention.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 297 doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical staff from Gaza were taken into custody.
A Palestinian medical NGO, Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), says the figure is closer to 339, with more than 160 still languishing in Israeli prisons.
Eight senior doctors have given detailed accounts of violence, starvation and relentless humiliation during their detention.
‘They stripped me naked, covered my eyes, chained my feet and started beating me immediately,’ says one doctor who was arrested at a checkpoint.
‘It was like they had been waiting for me.’
Others describe being assaulted while working in hospitals and pulled from ambulances at gunpoint.
Many were never charged and eventually released after months of alleged abuse.
‘They specifically targeted my hands,’ says Abu Ajwa.
‘An interrogator wanted to make sure I would never operate again.
‘They chained my wrists to planks for hours.
‘I was cuffed 24 hours a day.
‘They kept telling me they would ruin my ability to perform surgery.’
Another senior doctor says he was forced to endure electric shocks and watched fellow detainees being kicked and dragged by wounded limbs.
‘It was not just the beatings,’ he explains.
‘They treated us like we were not human at all.
‘In one prison, they demanded we howl like dogs.’
HWW has collated testimonies and concluded that doctors endured torture including sexual violence, genital mutilation and forced nudity in freezing conditions.
‘I witnessed a prisoner with a baton forced inside him,’ says surgeon Dr Khaled Serr, who was held for over six months.
‘He suffered horrifying injuries that never fully healed.’
International experts say the forced disappearance and mistreatment of medical personnel sets a terrifying precedent.
‘It’s a deliberate attempt to undermine an already exhausted healthcare network and terrorise the wider community,’ says one British surgical consultant who worked in Gaza.
Israeli forces claim hospitals were being used by Hamas for military purposes, although UN investigators say little evidence has been offered to support these allegations.
‘Israel must immediately release all those held arbitrarily, including medical staff, and end all practices that amount to enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment,’ read a statement from the UN Human Rights Office, which urged accountability for all who commit crimes under international law.
When approached about allegations of mass arrests and abuses, the Israeli military issued a general statement, saying it operated in line with international law, that all detainees received basic provisions, and that any deaths in custody were investigated.
However, doctors in Gaza insist the suffering continues.
Two of their most senior colleagues are known to have died in detention, and numerous others remain unaccounted for.
‘My father was injured when he was seized,’ says Elyas, son of paediatrician Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who directed a major hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
Elyas said: ‘We are living in shock, terrified about what might be happening to him.’
Dr Ahmad Mhanna, head of another Gaza hospital, has also spent more than one year behind bars without any charge.
In one of his last letters home, he wrote: ‘I love you so much, and I know we will have our moment together again soon.
‘Be strong.’
Despite losing multiple teeth, Abu Ajwa has returned to his shattered hospital, determined to keep working.
‘They tried to take away the one thing I can offer my people. ‘But I will always keep going until my last breath in the operating theatre.’